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April 03, 2005The Foundations...Since every so often I like to bore you with what I'm reading... I read the first three books of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series when I was a kid. That was 40 years ago. About ten years ago I found a paperback bookset of the four books of the series at a yard-sale and bought them. This past week I read them again (okay, three again, one for the first time) with great pleasure. They were:
Great Fun! Yes, yes, I will admit that much of the first three books are very "50's" with all sorts of anachronisms such as everyone almost chain-smoking, even in space-ships, and women being only an after-thought and not equal to men. But they were still great "reads" with a sweeping historical story of what happens to the many worlds populated by mankind in the 12 thousand years following our times. Foundation's Edge was written in the 80's and reflects more modern mores. Still, Isaac Asimov was a brilliant writer. I had, many years ago, gone to two lectures of his in Teaneck, NJ at the local university there, and in NYC at another. He was an engaging and remarkably witty speaker and forward thinker. For all his sci-fi books including the Foundation ones, the Robot ones, his Black Widow mysteries, etc, etc, he was absolutely a million years ahead of our times. His science books were easy to understand, too. Anyway, I MUST read the final chapter of Foundation. I've searched all the local used-book stores and also Borders for Foundation and Earth and can't find it. If one of you kind folks out there have a beat-up, used paperback of it, please email me if you'd kindly send it to me for my collection. I must read the out-come! Update: I'll have to post more about sci-fi. I didn't realize so many of you were into it! Comments
there is always the public library system... Or if you are really serious try American Book Exchange. I didn't care much for the Foundation trilogy (to 50's) and I didn't care for Foundation and Earth - I won't say why since you haven't read it yet. I feel that way about a lot of great "old" SciFi. Dune - hated it, or rather it didn't hold up to the hype. Heinlein - some of his stuff is good, a lot of it is boys and their high-tech toys...no point (to much like the Chronicles of Riddick) LeGuin, Clarke, Zimmer-Bradley, and a few others deal with real issues of existence. Though Clarke always made sure the technology and science were sound. Posted by: Zendo Deb at April 3, 2005 07:52 PMABE has what you are looking for at the right price. I think everyone who reads should know about ABE. Posted by: Zendo Deb at April 3, 2005 08:17 PMI've got a 'Friends of the Library' boooksale coming up next weekend. I'll look for you a copy if you haven't got one by then. I sold off my Asimov when I left Anchorage a few years ago. I second the recomm on abebooks.com, their selection is outstanding. the shipping does get a bit high, but they have books not available anywhere else. Posted by: John Cunningham at April 4, 2005 12:19 AMI'll third Abebooks, awesome resource, I found some really obscure stuff there. And the Foundation series rocked, I read it 15 years ago myself, along with the Robot series. Foundation was just sweeping in scope, Hari Seldon was one of my fixtional heros of the day. If you like Herbert, try Jesus Incedent and Lazarus Effect, also some interesting reads, and if they really float your boat, read Destination VOID afterward, it was an early Herbert novel that set the stage for the other two. Posted by: Head at April 4, 2005 02:22 AMI loved the Foundation trilogy back when, though at the age I initially read it, I found it kind of... tedious. Very good example of fifties expectations. When I got to the later ones, I was disappointed with the earthy crunchy turn it all took. Posted by: Jay at April 4, 2005 11:39 PMI love the Foundation stories. Even Foundation and Earth. If you're also a fan of the series (and I think only fans would try to dig up a copy of Foundation and Earth) then I think I'd actually recommend reading Robots and Empire before Foundation and Earth, because he does some tie-ins between different storylines in those two books - and also in Forward the Foundation, which I think was the last book we wrote before he died. It's kind of a Hari Seldon biography, and provides some backstory for Foundation. Of course, if you want the full tie-ins, you also need to read Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun (I think that's the right title; it's been a really long time since I read it). Yes, I am an Asimov fan. :) Posted by: Matt at April 5, 2005 02:37 AMthe comment input form disappears. Your comments are welcome. You don't need to enter a URL and you don't need a "valid" email address, either. Note though that MT Blacklist is installed to flag suspiciously spam-like strings. Unfortunately, because of the bastard spammers, the strings "google.com" and "yahoo.com" (even in your email address) are currently banned as well. So are strings such as "cialis" (a common spam) which rules out words such as "socialism". Try putting a hyphan in a word like that. By Golly, you're reading an archived post. Click Here to head to the main page and read current stuff...Into science fiction? Check out my group blog novel, Colony: Alchibah. See the reader's guide there for first-timer tips. |
